Publishing with FP 2003 with server extensions installed and FTP

[theskarnes]

Hi, I have been updating a site that has the FP server extension
installed. Now another person needs to make some changes to the site
and I dont think they use Frontpage. Can they access the site via FTP
to make the changes? I realize the site on my local drive won't be in
sinc with the site on the web server so I'm thinking I would have to
make future updates directly to the web site on the server. I hand
code the HTML so don't use templates. Would this scenerio be possible?
would the other person be able to make changes to the site via FTP?
Thanks, Steve

 

[Ronx]

They could access using FTP - but they could also easily corrupt the
FrontPage extensions. Your colleague would also have to avoid any pages
that use the FrontPage extensions in any way - pages with FrontPage
navigation bars, forms that use the extensions for processing, hit
counters, etc.

FTP is most "dangerous" when uploading files to the server - it is too
easy to upload a file in the _vti* folders in the wrong format (ASCII v
Binary). These _vti* folders and their contents MUST NOT BE TOUCHED in
any way. One further problem is that the meta data stored in the
extensions will not be updated - you will have to open the site in
FrontPage (if you can) and run Tools->Update Hyperlinks to update the
meta data after your colleague edits anything.

Editing live on the server is seldom a good idea - all your mistakes are
live as well. You will also have to Publish down to your own PC to
obtain a backup for the site, and bring your local copy back into synch
at the same time.

Editing a FrontPage extended site with FTP can be done - but is not
recommended. It is too easy to do more harm than good.